Courtovo
The score screen
This is what you look at during a match. It is designed to be read at a glance, at arm's length, in sunlight, while out of breath.
The line above the score
There is a small, muted row at the top of the score screen. By default it holds only your heart rate, when there is a reading — but you can ask it for more: Settings → Above the score.
The line shows one figure at a time, and there are two kinds of figure: what your body is doing, and where the match is in time.
| What you can tick | Kind | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | body | Energy burned so far, taking turns with your heart rate |
| Time | time | The time of day |
| Match time | time | How long this match has been going |
| Court time left | time | How much of your booked court is left — needs a club account |
Tick nothing and the line says nothing beyond your heart rate, and it holds still. Tick a time as well and the line changes every five seconds, taking turns: your heart rate, then a time, then your heart rate (or your calories, if you ticked them) again, then the next time you ticked.
Why one at a time and not side by side: the two did not fit the watch. The top of a round screen is its narrowest part, and 142 bpm · 10:38 PM in one row ran off both edges — worst of all during a long match, when the sets already played push the line higher still. Taking turns is also why your heart rate is never more than five seconds away, however many times you tick.
Each figure says what it is without its neighbour: the heart rate and calories carry their unit, and every time carries a symbol. On a watch set to a long language the heart rate may be drawn a little smaller, so that its unit stays on the glass.
Your heart rate is not a tick — it is simply there when there is a reading. What to measure is the battery setting's business, not this screen's.
Every time carries a small symbol, because all three share one position and the numbers alone cannot say which one you are looking at:
| Symbol | What it is |
|---|---|
| clock face | the time of day |
| stopwatch | how long the match has been going |
| hourglass | how much court time is left |
The leading zero tells the time of day from a duration as well: the time of day always has two digits of hour (02:20), an elapsed time never does (2:20). What the symbols added is the pair that rule cannot separate — match time and court time left are both durations, and 1:07 of tennis played looks exactly like 1:07 of court remaining.
The time of day is written the way your watch writes it. If your watch keeps a 12-hour clock you get 2:40 AM, not 02:40 — the app follows the setting the rest of your wrist already follows, and there is nothing to configure here. The AM/PM marker is not decoration: on a 12-hour clock the hour is no longer padded, so the marker is what keeps 2:40 in the morning apart from 2:40 of tennis played. It follows the language you have set the app to, not the country of the watch.
Court time left goes negative (-0:04) once you are over — stopping at zero would hide the one thing worth knowing at that moment. And if you tick it but play without a booking, it is simply skipped: the line does not blink to nothing in its place.
What you see
Top to bottom, smallest to largest:
| Element | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Small figures at the top | The sets already finished. In a long match only the most recent ones fit, and … stands for the earlier ones — the history keeps all of them |
| Large, in the middle | The current game — the biggest thing on the screen by a wide margin |
| The dot above a figure | Always says what the position does not: under Server first it says which figure is you, under Your side first it says who is serving |
| Below the large figure | Games in the current set |
| At the bottom | One thing at a time: the undo offer for a few seconds after a point, then the ⇄ mark if a change of ends is owed (below), then how many chances there are and of what — ● ● ● Break is a triple break point, the dots on the side whose chance it is |
The left-hand side is the serving side, so the two figures change places when the serve does. That is how a score is said aloud, and it is why the dot marks which one is you. See Which way round the score is if you would rather each player kept a side — and Warm-up for claiming yours.
Scoring a point
Three equal ways; use whichever suits the moment:
- Touch: the left half of the screen scores for the left side, the right half for the right.
- Bezel clockwise: a point for your side.
- Bezel counter-clockwise: a point for your opponent.
One deliberate turn is always exactly one point, however fast or far you spin it. Rocking the bezel back and forth scores nothing.
Every registered point gives a haptic tick and every point can be undone — which is why there is no confirmation prompt.
Changing ends
When it is time to change ends the watch says so: the ⇄ mark at the bottom of the score screen, in a colour of its own, together with two short buzzes.
It is a mark and not a word on purpose — it has to be read at a glance, by someone out of breath, and a shape is quicker than a sentence. A screen reader still says "Change ends".
It arrives a few seconds after the point that earned it — the undo offer goes first, because that is the one you might be reaching for — and it stays until the next point is played. That is how long the walk takes, and it is why it is not a flash you can miss.
You do not have to count games for it. Ends change after every odd game of the match, and during a tiebreak every six points on top of that. If a set ends on an even number of games you do not change straight away: the change comes after the first game of the next set. That is the part people get wrong, and it is the part the watch is most useful for.
Two buzzes, and nothing else buzzes twice. A point is a single tick; the court-time warning is three long pulses. A watch with no vibrator just shows the prompt and stays quiet — nothing lives only in the buzz.
The other sports have their own schedules, and the watch knows them:
| Sport | Ends change |
|---|---|
| Table tennis | after every game, and at 5 in the last possible game |
| Badminton | after every game, and at 11 in the third |
| Pickleball | after every game, and in the deciding game at 6 of 11 (8 of 15) |
| Squash | never — both players share one court |
| Beach volleyball | after every 7 points played in a set, every 5 in the third; never between sets |
| Volleyball in a hall | after every set except before the last, and at 8 in the last |
The mid-game change is called when either side first reaches the number; the other side reaching it a point later does not call a second one. On a beach it is the points played that count — 4-3 is the seventh — and never the point that wins the set.
Who serves the next set (volleyball)
In beach volleyball the second set is opened by whoever lost the first toss, if they choose to serve, and a new toss decides the third; in a hall a toss decides the last set. No rule can say who that will be, so the watch asks: once the set is over and the undo offer has gone, the footer reads Who serves? and no side is marked as serving.
Answer the way you score: tap the half of the screen of the side that serves, or turn the bezel toward it. It is not a point — the score does not move. Wrong side? Swipe up and the question comes back. If you ignore it and just play, the rally still counts, and from then on whoever wins a rally serves, so the watch is right again after one point.
Football, handball and basketball
A tally has no ladder: tap the half of the side that scored, or turn the bezel, and the number goes up — one for a goal, two for a basket. There is no serving dot and no change of ends.
Halves, quarters and the countdown. Pick the format on the warm-up screen: football 2 × 45 min (with extra time), 2 × 30 or 2 × 20; handball 2 × 30 (with overtime) or 2 × 20; basketball 4 × 10 or 4 × 12 (with overtime) or 2 × 20. The small figure under the score counts down what is left of the period — "12:34" — and runs on into added time as "+1:05". At zero the watch gives three short buzzes, once. It does not end the period by itself, because the referee's watch is the one that counts: Match menu → End match → End of the period does. A break follows, and the figure names the period about to start; Start the next period in the same place restarts the countdown, and so does a goal scored before you get to it. After the last period the match is over with whoever leads. Level at the end of regulation time in a format with overtime, the next period is overtime; if a draw is the result you want, blow the Final whistle instead. The clock runs without stopping — a basketball clock that stops on every whistle is not something a wrist can see.
The last format in each list is the clock-free tally: no periods, and the figure under the score is the minute since the start.
A basket that was not a two. For the few seconds Undo is offered after a basket, +1 and +3 stand either side of it: tap one and the basket you just added becomes a free throw or a three. It is the same score corrected, not a second one, and one more Undo takes it away.
The final whistle is yours. A tally never ends by itself: Match menu → End match → Final whistle records the result as it stands — won, lost, or a draw. Swipe up on the score screen before leaving it, and a whistle blown by mistake comes back like a point.
Not yet: a stopped clock, a penalty shoot-out, and the statistics a football match would want — the statistics swipe does nothing on a tally.
Undoing
Three routes to the same thing:
- Swipe up on the screen — one swipe undoes one point. Repeat for more.
- Long press on the screen.
- Tap Undo, which appears for a few seconds after each point.
Undo always removes the most recent point and the whole score is recalculated, so the server cannot drift out of step across a set boundary or inside a tiebreak.
The menu and the statistics
Open the menu with the back button or by swiping left to right — see Match menu. Open the statistics by swiping right to left — see Statistics.
About the side buttons
On a Samsung Galaxy Watch the physical side buttons belong to the system and the app never hears them. So nothing is reachable only by a button — everything works by touch and bezel too.
Which way round the score is
The two big numbers are read the way a score is said: the serving side first. The same game is "thirty-fifteen" to the player serving it and "fifteen-thirty" to the other one, so the numbers change places when the serve does — and so does the half of the screen you tap, because you always tap the score you want to raise.
The dot above one of them tells you which one is you. (The serving side is the left one, so a dot marking the server would never move.)
The games and sets underneath do not change places. They always read with your own score first, because they are a record of the match rather than a score being called.
If you would rather each player kept a side: Settings → Score order → Your side first. Then your score is always on the left and the dot marks the server instead, which is what the app did before.
The bezel and the side buttons never change, whichever you choose: clockwise, or the top button, is always your point.